I always wished to write down about events as that captures memory snapshots. Most often being lazy, I couldn't inscribe it. This time I didn't want to do that as Arjun enjoyed the trip to the core and in fact, any other kid might do.
If you have 5 min of spare time and are interested to know about our journey, do read this.
Starting with travel to accommodation, our trip to Copenhagen to celebrate Arjun's 5th Birthday is cherish-able. We did have our tiring moments, owing to tight schedule and hiccups with travel on here and there in new place, but that would not take away the amazement we saw in our little one's eyes.
Flights
Copenhagen is just 2 hours away from Edinburgh and we have a direct ✈ too. That's one of the reasons to chose this city for our short weekend trip. Both Easy jet and Ryanair run their services(economy airlines that run in and around Europe) with timings that suit our school and office schedules. We left from Edinburgh at around 7PM on Friday and returned by 11PM on Sunday.
Accommodation
Stay in Copenhagen was bit pricey comparative to other European cities. After a lot of dilly-dallying, we booked in Clarion hotel within the airport. It was quite handy with our departure and arrival flight timings. Wouldn't forget to mention the gym (little one tried his hand too with weights see this), delicious and healthy continental breakfast included within it. We did easily avoid a lunch or snack with the humongous breakfast we gulped in.
Day 1: City Tour
Taking the full advantage of holiday and hotel we set off @10AM to see the Aquarium as Arjun wanted to see the Hammerhead Shark from his book in real (it feels we may have to mark our attendance in every city's aquarium 😉). There is some development from last aquarium's visit though, he touched fish this time (as he felt he is big boy now - 5 years old and can do/has to do everything 😇) and out of it lies the big ocean and next to it is a play area in Danish style with a twist of creativity. Now we have a task to take him out of it as other parts of Copenhagen are waiting for us. On the way to Exit was the shopping area for aquarium 🤦♀️. Will leave it to you to guess what would have happened😆 .
We set off to explore the city using public transport- Metro, Subways and frequent buses. It is a 🚴♀️friendly city.
First stop was to Copenhagen's iconic Tivoli gardens. We went there despite being aware that it is closed for 2 weeks for Halloween preparation, to see if they will allow us to peek in 🤣, don't think what will we get peeking into an amusement park.
To blame our daily jobs and lazy bums, our heels started to complain already. To give them some rest, we cruised in for an hour-long Canal tour from Nyhavn to see the beautiful views of the iconic city, not to miss the alluring boat houses. Off we went to McD to fill the HappyMeal hungry that Arjun was, you can guess how his tummy filled (not with 🍔 but with the 🎁 he got)
Once tummy muscles are relaxed, we set off to Children's section of Worker's Musuem where kids can touch and feel everything in there. 'Amma, look at the box' was his expression when he saw TV from 80's period, he had his go at 3 wheelers, Typewriter, and stamps.
From there we set off to Design Museum. With the name and promising pictures on their website, was curious to know what's happening inside it that is different to other museums. I realized that I never appreciated the fact there can so much thought process put through behind the chairs we use. More than the chairs, their passion to show the world about the transformation over years has amused me. How much ever I try not to be a critic, my inner self is kicking in. So, I will stop about this here (otherwise my true opinion may come out oops!!)
City tour can never be a relaxed holiday, as we would feel to cover the whole world in our holiday span. With time nearly 6 and as most other attractions are now closed, its time to show my little one the place he wants to see on Day1 while booking this trip - Planetarium. On the way back from Design museum we covered Amalienborg (the Royal palace) and Arjun was tired and dozed off to sleep on our way.
He woke up to see the hanging Earth and moon within the Planetarium Museum area. He was intrigued to watch Planets, Solar system, Milky Way, Galaxies, Sun the star, how earth and moon are formed before watching a movie about how life started on Earth showing us the Red land in Australia to Volcanoes in Iceland and how geologists risk their lives to unfold the mysteries of the Earth.
What's happening is his favorite question these days and he would have asked at least 10 times in that hour🙇. He bought glowing stars to stick in his room and was eager to head back to the hotel and store them safe in his bag.
Even before going to sleep, he was shouting - Amma, Nanna - tomorrow is my birthday 🤣.
Day2 - The Big Day
How hard I try to go back in my memory lane, I cannot recall how I felt for my birthday when I was of Arjun's age.
With so many kids around our house, I can see how important they feel about their birthday and how much it matters to them being a day younger or elder than one.
Now as my little one is turning 5, he thinks something magical is going to happen. His first question was, will I move to P2 (year 2 or second class - he just started P1 a month ago) after my birthday?
And many things that he wants to do himself as he is now 5 😍!!
He started the day with playing and cutting the Yummy Cake covered in Red Danish flags and fruits that hotel staff surprised him with. He carried one of the flags back home too.
He wanted (was influenced probably) to cut his cake and celebrate his birthday near LittleMermaid, I kind of liked the idea as Little Mermaid was set up in 1913 and Arjun was born in 2013, a century apart. I thought there wouldn't be a better place than this in Copenhagen to mark his day.
Once we went there and he blew the candle off 🎂and had a bite of the cake, he was asking me "Amma, shall I go rock by rock and on to Mermaid". This is what you can expect from them when they see such things, not sit and admire the beauty of sculpture or praise an artist, isn't it?
Slowly made our way back to a bus stop, to head towards Experimentarium. It's opening hours for the day was from 10AM-5PM, so, I initially planned to reach there around 10ish, but, of course, we were late than planned just by 3 hours 🤷♀️, no complaints though as he had fab time playing in the rocks.
For marking the entry, they have stamped us on hand, which will not be visible with naked eye but needs ultraviolet light to see it. Arjun got fascinated by it and many questions followed. We climbed the shimmery round stairs to reach the first floor.
Tried our hands at various things, all of them with a practical example in a way that Arjun (even us ) can understand.
How our muscle power can be converted to launch a rocket
The difference of the object's body weight on the road, rail, and water.
Where oil exists in the North Sea and how it can be extracted.
Different sounds we make, how/why they are (like Yawning, Burping, sneeze etc.,)
Fixed human body parts
Investigated a skeleton
Triggered Tornadoes, Hurricanes, created waves, moved ships across from one bay to another using wind, waves, water movement.
And the highlight part that Arjun enjoyed was with Import/Export of goods - they had a huge set up where each good is printed on a ball and they need make sure that goods are exported from one country to another country via plane/truck/ships.
They were running a 10min 4D activity show - again another hit - Arjun was on his heels through out running, jumping and dancing with the animator in the movie to unite her with her family. Moral of the activity - Magic is in our hands, stay active and do everything you can to achieve what you need.
I and Arjun then went to a 2 minute journey of magical land - dark and scary to enter and land in a room full of mirrors, moving through a forrest terrain, following strange noises, walking through a steep road and out. Eventhough he was scared through out, once he crossed the exit door he felt ecstatic and was excited to show this to his Dad. He ran to bring him from sitout and they went in again.
Due to lack of time (were there for 4 hours!) we couldn't cover many other fun team games, mind games, animal land, science labs. Just had a glance through them on the second floor and we are off to shop. There were many innovative toys over there, but, all Arjun wanted was a Slime and he was extremely happy to have it.
After that, we were back to Norreport station to have our meal in a Labonese cafe and set off to the hotel to pick luggage and travel back.
Arjun dozed off to sleep soon on the flight and might be dreaming about the wonderland.
I will leave you here to have your own journey in exploring the world.
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My strong belief is it is not the place but, the people around you that make it special. This trip was designed for Arjun, I feel we triumphed as he was enthralled and will surely remember atleast a bit of it for his entire life.
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Tip: Copenhagen card is truly worth it covering travel and entrance to most of the iconic places to visit in and around the city.
